Is listening a physiological process?

  1. Understand the differences between listening and hearing.
  2. Explain the benefits of listening.

Hearing is an accidental and automatic brain response to sound that requires no effort. We are surrounded by sounds most of the time. For example, we are accustomed to the sounds of airplanes, lawn mowers, furnace blowers, the rattling of pots and pans, and so on. We hear those incidental sounds and, unless we have a reason to do otherwise, we train ourselves to ignore them. We learn to filter out sounds that mean little to us, just as we choose to hear our ringing cell phones and other sounds that are more important to us.

Figure 4.1 Hearing vs. Listening

Listening, on the other hand, is purposeful and focused rather than accidental. As a result, it requires motivation and effort. Listening, at its best, is active, focused, concentrated attention for the purpose of understanding the meanings expressed by a speaker. We do not always listen at our best, however, and later in this chapter we will examine some of the reasons why and some strategies for becoming more active critical listeners.

Listening should not be taken for granted. Before the invention of writing, people conveyed virtually all knowledge through some combination of showing and telling. Elders recited tribal histories to attentive audiences. Listeners received religious teachings enthusiastically. Myths, legends, folktales, and stories for entertainment survived only because audiences were eager to listen. Nowadays, however, you can gain information and entertainment through reading and electronic recordings rather than through real-time listening. If you become distracted and let your attention wander, you can go back and replay a recording. Despite that fact, you can still gain at least four compelling benefits by becoming more active and competent at real-time listening.

When you focus on the material presented in a classroom, you will be able to identify not only the words used in a lecture but their emphasis and their more complex meanings. You will take better notes, and you will more accurately remember the instructor’s claims, information, and conclusions. Many times, instructors give verbal cues about what information is important, specific expectations about assignments, and even what material is likely to be on an exam, so careful listening can be beneficial.

When you give your best attention to people expressing thoughts and experiences that are important to them, those individuals are likely to see you as someone who cares about their well-being. This fact is especially true when you give your attention only and refrain from interjecting opinions, judgments, and advice.

When you listen well to others, you reveal yourself as being curious and interested in people and events. In addition, your ability to understand the meanings of what you hear will make you a more knowledgeable and thoughtful person.

When you listen well to others, you start to pick up more on the stylistic components related to how people form arguments and present information. As a result, you have the ability to analyze what you think works and doesn’t work in others’ speeches, which can help you transform your speeches in the process. For example, really paying attention to how others cite sources orally during their speeches may give you ideas about how to more effectively cite sources in your presentation.

  • Hearing is the physiological process of attending to sound within one’s environment; listening, however, is a focused, concentrated approach to understanding the message a source is sending.
  • Learning how to be an effective listener has numerous advantages. First, effective listening can help you become a better student. Second, effective listening can help you become more effective in your interpersonal relationships. Third, effective listening can lead others to perceive you as more intelligent. Lastly, effective listening can help you become a stronger public speaker.

Research in the physiology and psychology of listening aims at a granular understanding of the processes that are going on inside the listener, and the way listening affects our mental and physical states.

Spatiality of sound is among the most subtle and refined information that we are able to perceive. It is a driver for highly complex neural processing, interaction between the left and right hemispheres of the brain and coordination of the neuro-motoric system of the body, directly affecting the regulation of muscle activity, balance and posture [The Ear and the Voice, Tomatis 1988]. The entire body is involved in the process of listening that ultimately leads to the conscious perception of sound and its spatial characteristics.

This programme is focussed on gathering and interpreting quantifiable data of the body and the brain in response to spatial perception of sound, such as can be obtained via EEG-devices and other biometric sensors - for example heart rate, heart rate variability and galvanic skin response among others; as well as qualitative data, gathering first-hand experiences through experimentation with specific modes of physical and psychological interaction with sound. Through analysis of the collected data, the programme examines the measurable impact of spatial listening and investigates the possible benefits for health, wellbeing and social interactions. The data will contribute to a broader study that examines the impact of our sound spaces on creative abilities, concentration, social intelligence and happiness. In this light, special attention in the programme goes out to research such effects on children. As our understanding of the physiology and psychology of listening grows, we can start to build a semantics of spatial sound that more clearly and precisely defines the underlying patterns we identify. For example, effective frequencies, rhythms and sonic textures expressed in a spatial sound environment can have specific outcomes within the listener: such as memory recall, associative visualisation and creative problem solving. Specific modalities of sound could thus encourage personal growth, such as through meditation practice or cultivating awareness; restorative and palliative care to provide reduction of stress, pain and anxiety; and even medical applications with audible sound can be envisioned - such as treatment of depression, OCD, ADHD and trauma reversal.

→ Key Questions

What happens inside our body when we listen? How is sound information processed and stored within the body and the brain? How do the acoustics of the human body relate to the acoustics of our spaces - and can effective resonance between body and space be established through sound? What is the relation between sound, vibration and our physical and mental states? Are there clearly repeatable, discernable patterns in our responses to sound that indicate specific functions for listening? What are the aesthetics and new practices with sound that could emerge from such understanding? Can we heal, or even cure diseases, by means of audible, spatial reception of sound ?

→ Creators and Contributors

The Physiology & Psychology of Listening programme is open to creative and scientific research proposals from a range of contributors at different stages in their career. All fields of research are welcome to apply to the programme, including but not limited to:
  • PhD candidates and PostDoc researchers in the field of neuroscience
  • Cognitive and behavioural psychologists
  • Sound & music therapists
  • Clinical physicians and medical practitioners
  • Experimental sound & media artists with an interest working with biometric technology and data
  • Meditation practitioners
  • Laboratories & academic institutions that conduct scientific research in the field of sound, physiology and perception


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